


when i get home

by Kit_Kat21



Series: Beatles Tribute [30]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Family Feels, Family Issues, Moving, Parent-Child Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-06
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:00:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23033620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kit_Kat21/pseuds/Kit_Kat21
Summary: “We’re done!” Max agreed and then rushed past Jon, leaving the bedroom without a second glance.Jon exhaled a shaky breath, feeling his throat grow scratchy as he looked around the boys’ empty bedroom. He was NOT going to get choked up.Outside in the driveway, Lyanna and Arthur and Ned and Catelyn were saying goodbye to everyone with dozens of hugs and kisses and Max ran ahead to join in. With one more glance into the house, Jon stepped out onto the porch and closed the front door behind him for the final time.
Relationships: Jon Snow/Sansa Stark
Series: Beatles Tribute [30]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/905319
Comments: 228
Kudos: 188





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> "When I Get Home" was written by John Lennon for the _A Hard Day's Night_ album. John drew in inspiration from the Shirelles.

…

There were more than enough last-minute things to do before the moving van arrived in the morning, but for their last full day in Wintertown before moving, officially, to Greywater in the Neck, Jon and Sansa were throwing one last barbecue at their house with everyone invited.

All of the family and the children’s friends were there with them and Sansa made sure to take dozens of pictures. She made sure to take one of Brandon with Alaric, Victoria and Little Sam – Brandon, Alaric and Victoria having known one another and being best friends since they were toddlers, all in the university daycare together. And the four had been inseparable all through elementary, middle and junior high school. Sansa promised all of the parents that she would make sure everyone got copies.

“We’ll frame this and put it in your new room,” Sansa then told Brandon, who nodded and didn’t say anything. And despite knowing that he might hate it, she put an arm around his shoulders and kissed him on the head. “It will all be alright,” she said quietly despite the level of noise in the backyard from everyone.

Brandon nodded and didn’t say anything.

“When you were a baby and we lived with Grandpa Ned, Grandma Catelyn and Uncle Rickon, I thought we were going to live there forever because being with them was a good thing. But then we moved into our own little house and that worked out great, wouldn’t you say?” She asked. Brandon looked up to her and nodded. Soon, he wouldn’t have to look up to her. He was almost as tall as Jon now. “And then, when your dad and I got married and we moved into this house, that might have been even better. Don’t you think?” Again, Brandon nodded. “So, maybe…” she sighed. “Maybe moving to Greywater will be the best of them all.”

Brandon was quiet as he thought that over. He then sighed, too. “You might be right,” he agreed.

“Of course I’m right. I’m your mom,” Sansa then smiled and when Brandon rolled his eyes, she laughed.

“Brandon!” Both Eleanor and George ran up to him – the twins breathless, wet and holding water guns, all of their other friends, armed and running around as well. “We need your help!”

“Go on,” Sansa smiled, squeezing her arm around Brandon’s shoulders as George produced another water gun from the back of his jeans to give to his brother.

After the kids had run off, Sansa turned and spotted her sister-in-law and one of her best friends, Margaery, sitting at the patio table with hers and Robb’s youngest in her lap, feeding Madison some macaroni salad. Robb and Margaery had two children – daughters, four-year-old Morgan and two-year-old Madison. As Sansa walked towards her now, she looked around for her brother, but didn’t see him anywhere.

“Where’s Robb?” Sansa asked as she sat down in the empty lawn chair next to Margaery. She gave Madison a smile as the toddler smiled at her with her mouth full, pointing to her aunt with a finger. Sansa leaned in and pretended to take a bite of it.

“He’s in the house, talking with your parents and Jon.”

Sansa leaned back to look at Margaery with the slightest frown. “Is everything okay?”

Margaery didn’t say anything immediately. She fed Madison another spoon of macaroni salad. Sansa’s eyes seemed to hone in on Margaery’s bare third finger on her left hand. She was tanned and the white lines from her missing wedding and engagement rings made it glaringly obvious.

Sansa felt her heart freeze in her chest.

“You know me and your brother. We always loved fighting more than anything,” Margaery shrugged. “We were all about the drama and now, it seems that that’s the only thing we have between us.”

Sansa opened her mouth to respond to that, but every word she knew was gone from her mind.

Margaery shook her head then and gave a smile; Sansa amazed that such a genuine smile could be produced at a time like this. “But it’s not about that today. Today is about you and how you’re leaving me alone. I’m going to have to rely solely on Tormund now when I need a girl’s night out.”

Despite her mind still in shock over the breaking news Margaery had just told her about without actually telling her anything, Sansa actually felt herself smiling, too. “We both know Tormund is much better at girl’s night than I am. But if you need me, for _anything_ …” she took a deep breath, her throat feeling scratchy.

Sansa didn’t mean for that to happen. She truly didn’t. Even if she didn’t want to do this move, it was far too late to change her mind about it. But the truth was, she _wanted_ to make this move. She really did. For Jon, it was such an amazing opportunity and Jon was so selfless, always doing everything for their family. This was their turn to do something for him; something that could be absolutely amazing.

But she also wanted to do this for herself; to show everyone that she could do this.

It was just _a lot_.

Keeping one arm securely around Madison’s middle, Margaery gripped Sansa’s hand with her other.

“You’ll be two hours away,” Margaery said, reminding them both.

Sansa nodded her head, blinking quickly, getting rid of the tears. She didn’t want to cry. There was no reason to. As Eleanor liked to remind them all, this whole move was an adventure and Sansa _was_ excited for it.

“Two hours,” Sansa said with a smile. 

And she would remind her brother, as well, about only being two hours away. 

…

Jon was not going to get choked up. He refused to.

It was a house, yes – his family’s house for the past few years that he, Sansa and their kids had loved – but in the end, it was just a house. It was the family that made it a home and the family was going to be making a home in Greywater now. Families moved to new places every day and Jon liked to think that many of them didn’t cry as they went through their now _old_ house’s empty rooms.

He also wasn’t going to get choked up because Max was following him everywhere and Jon didn’t want his son to think that there was anything wrong. There wasn’t. They were saying goodbye to one life and saying hello to a new one and there _was_ something exciting about that.

“All clear, daddy!” Max announced, coming from the master bedroom walk-in closet.

Jon gave him a grin. “Good job, Max,” he commended him and Max beamed. “Want to help me clear the bathroom?” He asked.

“Yep!”

Except for a few bags, everything was packed away in mounds of cardboard boxes and the Snow family spent their last night in the house on the floor of their family room, in sleeping bags.

“Another adventure!” George and Eleanor had exclaimed.

And then the movers had arrived this morning when Sansa and Jon were still feeding the kids breakfast. His parents and then hers arrived shortly after and the morning had been a whirlwind, getting everything carried out and packed away into the moving van and now, Jon was going through the house one last time – with Max’s help – just to quadruple check that everything they wanted coming to the Neck with them hadn’t, somehow, been forgotten.

“Clear, daddy!” Max exclaimed once they had opened every drawer and cabinet.

“It is,” Jon agreed with a smile. “I think we’re all done. What do you think?”

Max didn’t say anything. He tilted his head; as if thinking, and then remembering, something. Without saying anything, he reached up and took Jon’s hand and led him from the bathroom and the master bedroom back into the hallway. Jon didn’t ask where he was leading him. He just followed his youngest down the hall into the empty bedroom that had belonged to George and Max.

Letting go of Jon’s hand, Max then reached up to the switch on the wall and flipped the ceiling fan on. As it began gaining speed, something flew from one of the blades and landed on the carpet with a soft thunk. Max hurried to collect it and then spun towards Jon, holding it up.

“I almost forgot it!” He exclaimed and Jon saw that it was one of Max’s plastic dinosaurs – this one a blue triceratops.

Jon smirked and turned the fan off. “I don’t even want to know how you got it up there.” And Max just giggled, holding the dinosaur to his chest. “Alright. _Now_ we’re done.”

“We’re done!” Max agreed and then rushed past Jon, leaving the bedroom without a second glance.

Jon exhaled a shaky breath, feeling his throat grow scratchy as he looked around the boys’ empty bedroom. He was NOT going to get choked up.

Outside in the driveway, Lyanna and Arthur and Ned and Catelyn were saying goodbye to everyone with dozens of hugs and kisses and Max ran ahead to join in. With one more glance into the house, Jon stepped out onto the porch and closed the front door behind him for the final time.

Ned caught his eye as Jon came down the steps and the path to the driveway and Jon managed a smile. Ned smiled, too, and gave him a slight nod. The man didn’t have to say anything. Jon considered himself lucky enough to know the man well.

_You’ll be just fine_ , Ned Stark told him without saying a word.

And that head nod was exactly what Jon needed.

“Alright. Now, I didn’t tell Brandon,” Arthur came of Jon’s side, holding a piece of folded paper. “But I know a few detectives and officers down in Greywater. Once you get everything settled, they know you’re going to be calling. I can’t have that boy falling too behind in his training.”

Jon’s face split into a grin, taking the paper and opening it, he saw five different names and phone numbers as well as the number for the main Greywater Police Department.

“This is going to mean so much to him, Arthur. Thank you. But why didn’t you tell him? This would really cheer him up if he knew.”

Arthur shook his head. “Despite my actions showing otherwise, I don’t want to pressure him. He might move down to Greywater and decide that becoming a policeman isn’t what he wants to do.”

Jon doubted that. It was hard to forget when Arthur had gifted Brandon with a roll of official crime scene tape and nothing was off limits in their house or either of his grandparent’s houses. It took almost a year to go through the entire roll and Sansa had been so tempted – more than once – to take it and hide it from him, but in the end, she had never had the heart to.

Brandon had wanted to be a police officer since he was four and Jon could never imagine that changing for him – no matter where they were living.

Without telling Arthur any of that, Jon simply turned to his stepfather and hugged him tight.

“You call us the instant you pull into your driveway,” Catelyn was telling Sansa as she wiped at her daughter’s wet cheeks; Catelyn’s cheeks equally wet.

“We will,” Sansa promised for the hundredth time.

She didn’t mean to cry. She really didn’t. It was just… the last time she had left home, it was to move to Dreadfort with Ramsay. Obviously, this was _nothing_ like that situation, but when she came back to Wintertown and her parents took care of her, she couldn’t imagine _ever_ leaving again.

And though this was a move with her husband and children and this was the right thing to do – not just for their family, but for both Jon and Sansa, too – it was hard to be leaving her parents again after all of this time.

Ned leaned in and kissed her on the head. “If you don’t leave, you won’t and you’ll have to pay for the moving van for another day,” he said realistically though his eyes were damp as well.

“The Baratheon’s are paying for it,” Sansa said, but she nodded and took a deep breath.

She looked to Jon, to see him currently being smothered by his mother. Her dad was right. It was time for them to get going.

…

It took them a few minutes more to say goodbye to everyone once again and then to get all of the kids and Martha loaded into the SUV.

“Alright. Are we ready?” Jon asked, looking at the kids in the rearview mirror.

“Yes!” “Yeah!” “Let’s do it!” Various answers replied back and with a smile, Jon turned the key in the ignition.

As always, the Snows’ Sirius radio was turned to the Beatles station and they were met with a blast of “Dig a Pony” – what Sansa liked to think of as one of hers and Brandon’s songs. And hearing it now, Sansa smiled. She looked to Jon, who was smiling, too, and she then turned in her seat to look at all of the kids. Brandon sat in the far back with Martha next to him and he was smiling, too.

And seeing Brandon smile, it just made Sansa’s smile happier.

She looked back to Jon. “Ready?” She asked with a deep breath.

Jon took a deep breath, too, and taking her hand, he kissed it. “Ready,” he nodded and when they reversed from the driveway and Sansa waved to their parents still in the driveway, watching them, George, Eleanor, Julia and Max all let out cheers.

(They had to stop ten minutes outside of Wintertown though when Julia needed to use the bathroom.)

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to those who are still reading this series of mine. I never intended for it to go on this long.


	2. Chapter 2

…

The moving van was parked at the curb in front of the new house with the back doors thrown open. Jon stood on the ground at the back of the van, watching as the movers removed things. Eleanor stood at the bottom of the flight of stairs that led up to the front deck and front door and Sansa was inside the house. Brandon had already gone upstairs to his third floor bedroom, looking around the empty space, trying to decide where he wanted things to go when the furniture and boxes started making their way up to him, Julia was with Sansa, following her around as Sansa directed the movers, and Max stood with Jon, staying behind his legs, entering one of his shy moods, hiding from the strange men as they carried things from the van into the house.

“That’s going to go into the dining room,” Jon said as two men carefully carried their hutch down the ramp. He then looked up the driveway to Eleanor. “Eleanor! Dining room!” He called out to her.

“Got it!” She gave him a thumbs up and then called up the stairs. “Dining room, mama!”

“Thank you, Eleanor!” Sansa called back from somewhere inside.

As for George, he had taken his soccer ball, and with Martha, he had gone into their backyard. He got bored easily and Jon and Sansa knew that he would definitely be bored with nothing to do except watch furniture and boxes move from the van into the house. And a bored George could be a somewhat troublemaking George so Jon had handed him the soccer ball from the back of the SUV that Sansa wisely had left out instead of packing it away in a box.

“Why don’t you give the backyard a test? See how it is?” Jon suggested. “Maybe you’ll find a snake or two.”

And at hearing that, George had been more than eager to go.

The ground in Greywater felt softer than up North and George had to wonder how much water this ground could soak up before it started to flood. The grass was a lot thicker and greener here, too, than up North. Dad was going to have a heck of a time mowing it, George thought to himself as he felt it tickle his ankles. It was almost like that super thick carpet Grandpa Ned had in his “man cave”. Shag, he called it.

Martha was sniffing every inch of their new backyard, acquainting herself with their new home as they all were, and George began kicking the ball back and forth, half paying attention to what he was doing and the other half on the lookout for slithering snakes in the grass.

Their backyard was fenced in with chain-link and the house to the right wasn’t fenced so George could look right into their backyard – not that there was much to look at. Nothing except for a blue birdbath and a bird feeder hanging from the branch of the one tree planted there, currently empty and swinging in the breeze.

The house to the left was fenced in with a taller solid fence he couldn’t see over and of course he was curious. George just wanted to get a feel of their new neighborhood. It was summer, but he still hadn’t seen any kids. Was it too hot for them? He could feel sweat roll down the back of his neck and his back underneath his tee-shirt. Maybe no one played outside in Greywater.

That made George frown. If no one played outside, how was he going to meet anyone? He would have to wait for school against in August and August was forever away.

And just thinking about not meeting any kids for two whole _months_ , George kicked the ball. Hard.

It sailed through the air… and flew right over the neighbor’s fence.

Huh, George thought to himself. But he then smiled. Well, _that_ was convenient.

He looked around – not that he was expecting anyone to be watching. His family was too busy and no one else was outside. With a smile, he went to the chain-link and easily climbed it – using the other fence to help him pull himself up – and then he stood on top of the chair-link, looking over into the other backyard.

There was someone there – a girl – and she was sitting in a wheelchair, but not a regular old wheelchair. One of those fancy motorized ones. And the soccer ball had landed a few inches away from her.

George looked over his shoulder, looking down to Martha, who had come to see what he was up to. “You stay here, girl,” he said and Martha was panting heavily – she was probably burning alive, George thought. Once he was done, they would go inside so he could get her some water. “I’ll be right back,” he then promised and Martha wagged her tail.

George hoisted himself up, putting one leg over fence and then the other before dropping down into the neighbor’s yard. There wasn’t anything interesting back here either except the girl in her wheelchair. He noted that while there was some grass, a lot of the backyard was paved over in concrete – probably to make the wheelchair easier to move. George went jogging towards her, but then slowed as he got closer. The wheelchair also had a headrest that seemed to be propping her head up, but she still seemed to be sitting, a little slumped over. Her mouth was open, just a little bit, and she wore a bib around her neck. She looked to be around his age with her dark brown hair cut to her ears and a face splattered with freckles.

He smiled a little at that. His face was covered in freckles, too.

“Hi,” George grinned as he stood in front of her. The only thing that moved were her eyes, looking to him. “I’m George. I’m moving in next door to you.” He pointed to his new house – not that she could turn her head to see. “I’m sorry I kicked my ball over the fence. I didn’t hit you, did I?” He asked.

The girl didn’t say anything. George wondered if she could.

At one of Brandon’s baseball games back in Wintertown, there had been a kid in a wheelchair a lot like this one, sitting next to the bleachers, and George hadn’t meant to be staring, but he had because something was wrong with the kid, but he didn’t know what. Sansa had put an arm around George’s shoulders.

“He’s just a boy, George. Don’t stare,” she said softly to him.

“What’s wrong with him?” George had to know.

Sansa was quiet for a moment and George knew she did that when she was trying to think of how to explain something. “Cerebral palsy. It’s something that can happen to babies and their brains when they’re still in their mama’s bellies, growing. It can affect their muscles and posture and the way their bodies grow. Some can’t talk or move without help. But I want you to always remember. They’re kids just like you and how would you feel if people stared at you or were even scared of you?”

George had frowned at that. “Why would I be scared of him?” He wondered.

And Sansa didn’t say anything to that, but she smiled and kissed him on the head.

George looked at the girl in front of him. He bet this girl had cerebral palsy and sometimes, the kids with it weren’t able to talk. George didn’t mind though. He was just happy to finally see another kid.

“My family and me just moved here from Wintertown. That’s a lot further North than this is,” he said. “I know that this place is the swamp, but how can you sit out here and not sweat? I bet you’re sweating. I already feel like I’m in a bath and I’m still in my clothes!”

The girl didn’t say anything, but her eyes were on him, looking a little bright, so George knew that she could hear and understand him just fine. George gave her a grin and the girl tried to smile, too, but as she did, a little drool escaped the corner of her mouth.

“That’s alright,” he told her, stepping up to her. Picking up the corner of her bib, he wiped her mouth for her without hesitating. “Happens to me all of the time. See? Good as new.” He gave another grin and the girl’s eyes had dimmed a little, but now, they were a growing bright again.

“Hey!”

George’s head jerked up and saw the back door of the house had opened and a woman had appeared.

“Who are you? What are you doing? Get away from her!” The woman began coming down the back deck stairs towards him. George could hear Martha start to bark from the other side of the fence as the woman yelled at him. “Get away from her!” Her shouting was getting louder and George didn’t hesitate as he grabbed his soccer ball before he took off.

He couldn’t climb back the way he had come so he ran up the yard towards the door in the fence that took him to the front yard before he lady could catch him. He ran straight to the moving van, where his dad and Max were still standing at the back.

“Hey,” Jon looked to him as George stopped, panting heavily. “What’s going on?”

George took another moment to catch his breath. He thought Brandon was crazy if he ran cross-country like he wanted to down here. The air was too heavy for running fast. Mom jogged, too, and George wondered if she still would now that they lived here.

“A woman was yelling at me,” he finally got out to his dad.

Jon frowned. “Already?” George just nodded. Jon looked to the moving van and then George. “Alright,” he sighed a little. “Take me to her. Hey guys, I’ll be right back,” he said to the movers.

Max stayed with Jon and Jon held his hand as they followed George to the house next door. Like the Snow’s new house, this house was also built up on stilts and where the Snow’s house was gray, this one was yellow. They climbed the steps up to the front door and George hugged his soccer ball to his chest. Jon reached out and rang the doorbell. As they waited, he looked down to George.

“This is a new record for you. Want to tell me what you did?” He asked.

George shook his head. “I wasn’t doing anything. I swear.”

“The title of your autobiography,” Jon smirked a little.

They both looked to the front door when they heard footsteps and then it was opened. A woman with dark brown hair the same color as the girl in the backyard stood there, hers also cut short. This wasn’t the woman who had been yelling. That woman had had blonde hair.

“Hello?” The woman said.

“Hi, I’m Jon Snow. My family and I are moving in next door,” Jon began.

“Oh!” The woman smiled. She looked past them to see the moving van and then back to Jon. “It’s so nice to meet you. I’m Mary Wheaton.”

“It’s nice to meet you, too,” Jon smiled as well and the two shook hands. “This is my son, George, and he wants to say something to you.” Jon then looked to George, who knew the drill, but George didn’t apologize. Instead, he frowned and shook his head.

“This wasn’t who yelled at me,” George told his dad.

Mary frowned a little. “Someone was yelling at you?”

“I kicked my ball into your backyard by accident and I was talking to the girl back there. Another woman came out and started yelling at me.”

“Oh.” Mary nodded. “That’s my daughter, Molly, and her nurse, Adelaide. I’m so sorry she yelled at you.”

“Can I see Molly again?” George then asked.

Mary looked over her shoulder, into the house, before back to the trio. “She’s just about to take her nap, but I don’t see the harm for a moment.” Mary then stepped back with a smile, letting them enter the house.

Jon bent down and hefted Max up in his arms as he followed George down the hall and Mary led the way. They turned into a bedroom and Jon admitted that he was very surprised with what he saw, but he quickly hid it. There was a girl in a wheelchair and another woman stood with her, turning the blankets down on the bed. Jon assumed this was Molly and the nurse, Adelaide. Molly saw George and the girl didn’t say anything, but Jon could see the way the girl’s eyes lit up.

“Hi, Molly,” George came to her with a grin as if they had already known each other their whole lives. “I know you’re about to take a nap, but I just wanted to ask if it’d be alright if I came over tomorrow?”

Jon noted that Adelaide was frowning, but from the corner of his eye, he saw Mary smiling, and Molly wasn’t smiling, but her eyes sure were. Jon smiled, too, as he watched his son, his heart feeling full and warm.

Molly didn’t speak, but she was able to nod her head just enough for George to get her answer.

“Awesome,” the boy grinned. “See you tomorrow!”

A moment later, after Jon thanked Mary, and the three Snows headed down the steps and back to their house, Jon put an arm around George’s shoulders. He didn’t say a word, but when George looked up to him, Jon gave him a smile and George smiled, too.

…

That evening, the moving van was gone and with the furniture and boxes piled in the appropriate rooms, the Snows ordered pizza for their first meal in their new house.

“We need to start trying different places out to see which ones we prefer,” Sansa had told them as she began looking through the yellow pages phonebook that had been left in a drawer in the kitchen.

Tonight, they had pizza delivered from Nino’s and none of them were spitting it out, but the crust did seem a little too doughy. They were all starving though and inhaling their slices. Martha had laid herself down over one of the vents as the air-conditioner blew and had only gotten up to now beg for some of their doughy crusts. Julia was more than happy to give the dog hers.

“Your dad told me about your new friend,” Sansa smiled at George.

“Yep,” George nodded through a mouthful of pizza. He swallowed. “She has _Toy Story_ stuff all over her room so I want to find the box my Buzz Lightyear is in so I can bring it with me when I go over there tomorrow.”

“Can I come?” Eleanor asked.

“Course you can,” George answered and Eleanor grinned.

“It’s loud here,” Julia said with a frown. “I won’t sleep.”

Jon nodded. “Crickets, cicadas and frogs,” he said. Wintertown had been mostly too cold for those things. Julia frowned a little more and Jon smiled. “You’ll get used to it.”

“When are you going to start work?” Brandon asked.

“Not for a few days. I want to help us all get unpacked and settled before I start,” Jon answered.

“How are you gonna start?” Max asked.

“Going to,” Sansa corrected him.

Jon was taking a sip of his Coke and he shook his head. “Honestly? I have no idea yet,” he admitted.

Next to him, Sansa leaned into him and kissed his cheek. “We’ll figure it out,” she promised. Jon smiled at her and kissed her on the forehead.

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU!! Who's ready for some Jon/Sansa alone-time in the next chapter? 😊


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I LOVE this song. "All I've Got to Do" was written by John Lennon for their _With the Beatles_ album. Lennon said that it was written specifically for the American market; the idea of calling a girl on the telephone was not common at all to British youth in the early 1960s. And also, something really cool - according to Dennis Alstrand, an author for several Beatles books, the song is the first time in rock and roll music where the bass player plays chords as a vital part of the song.

…

There was a small bedroom on the first floor, but Jon and Sansa decided to use that room as an office.

“And a sewing room,” Jon added with a smile and that made Sansa smile, too.

“Maybe I can work a bit more on that idea I had so long ago for a children’s wear line,” she thought out loud as she stepped into the room now, looking around the space.

“A summer line,” Jon added with a serious nod, making her laugh.

Right now, there was a hodgepodge of boxes as well as her drafting table. They hadn’t known what they would be using this room for so things had just been put in here for the time being. But now that it was agreed to be an office, Sansa slowly turned around the space, imagining where their desk would go as well as her table, sewing machine and dress forms.

It had been a long time since she had been able to sketch, sew and _design_. So busy with the kids and work, she just hadn’t had the time to sit down and sew anything except fixing a hole or resewing a button on some article of clothing. And yes, it would certainly take time for everyone to get settled and for their new home to get unpacked and righted, but after that, she would actually have a bit more time.

Sansa found herself smiling at just the thought.

Leaving the room, turning the light off behind her with Martha at her side, Jon was coming from the kitchen, holding two steaming mugs of hot chocolate.

“First in our new house,” he smiled and Sansa smiled, too, taking hers and holding it to her nose to inhale it.

They had made sure that all of the beds were put together and dressed with sheets and comforters and Jon and Sansa had expected it to be a long process tonight to get all of the kids ready for bedtime, but less than an hour after they started, all of the kids were sleeping in their beds in their new rooms, all absolutely exhausted after their long days.

Jon and Sansa were exhausted as well, but they wanted to stay up for a bit longer – just the two of them.

The air conditioner kicked on and Martha went trotting to the nearest vent, Sansa laughing as the dog stood over it, feeling the cold air on her underside and smiling at Sansa with her tongue hanging out.

“I wonder how she would look if we shaved all of her fur off,” Sansa mused out loud.

Jon snorted as he sipped from his mug at just the mental image of a shaved Siberian Husky. He went into their family room area – the kitchen and family room being one large, open room – and lowered himself onto their couch with a yawn.

They had to downsize. The houses in Greywater weren’t quite as big as the houses in Wintertown, they learned – unless they wanted to pay outlandish prices to live on the higher hills. There were enough bedrooms; just not enough room for all of their furniture.

There wasn’t a separate living and family room and instead, it was just one big room, so Jon and Sansa kept their family room furniture along with the rocking chair and armchair from their living room and left the rest of the living room set behind. The kitchen was also a good size, but there was no dining room – just an attached eating area so Jon and Sansa decided to bring their heavy-wood kitchen table that had both chairs and benches for seating and their hutch from the dining room while leaving their dining room table set.

“The cable company is going to be here sometime tomorrow so they’ll hook up our television and get our WIFI running, too,” Jon reminded them both as Sansa settled herself down on the floor in front of a box.

“I remember,” Sansa nodded. “Between ten and four. _Very_ convenient,” she said and Jon grinned.

She took a sip of her hot chocolate and then set the mug aside. She ripped the tape back and opened the flaps of the box, looking inside. When she saw the framed photographs, she smiled and taking a few, she stood up again and went to the fireplace against the far wall, beginning to arrange them on the mantel.

Various pictures of the Snow family – one of the kids taken at the annual Easter egg hunt at Catelyn and Ned’s – and one of the whole family together, taken on Christmas when Max was still a baby. Sansa looked to a picture of Jon and Sansa with Robb and Margaery and her smile faded as she looked it.

“Have you talked with Robb?” She asked, turning back towards Jon, taking the picture with her.

“I texted him earlier after I talked to my folks. Have you?”

“I texted him, too.” She looked down to the picture again. She might not put this one up on the mantel. “A part of me is surprised, but another part isn’t surprised at all.”

“That’s exactly how I felt when he told me.”

Jon sat up on the couch and leaning forward, he dragged a box closer to him. Setting aside his own mug of hot chocolate, he then peeled the tape off to look inside. He smiled when among rolls – and rolls – of bubble wrap was Sansa’s record collection.

“Maybe we can get a pull-out couch for the office,” Sansa suggested. “A nice, comfortable one. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of people who would put it to good use.”

“Sounds good to me,” Jon readily agreed.

As Sansa began unpacking the family’s encyclopedia set – yes, the Snows had an encyclopedia set that Sansa had bought from a thrift shop one afternoon while record hunting because they were from the '60s and Sansa loved the print and illustrations inside – Jon went to where their record player had been set, also wrapped a few dozen times with bubble wrap. He then looked around, looking for the small table they set it on and finding it in the room that was now their office, he carried it back into the family room.

Plugging it in, he made sure it hadn’t been jostled too much in the move and he then began unwrapping the records, placing them carefully in the slot beneath the table. And once that was all set, he chose a record.

He made sure the volume was low enough where they could still hear, but it wouldn’t wake the kids and when Sansa heard John Lennon’s voice fill the room, she looked away from the books she was unpacking to smile at her husband. Jon smiled, too, and didn’t say a word. He just held a hand out for her to take; which Sansa did quite happily.

They swayed together, Jon humming quietly along with “All I’ve Got To Do” and Sansa closing her eyes, resting her cheek to his, her arm tight around his shoulders.

“I love you so much, Sansa,” he then whispered into her ear. “And I can never thank you enough for this.”

Sansa didn’t hesitate in pinching her husband on the back of his neck.

“Hey,” Jon pulled his head back with a laugh and Sansa smiled sweetly at him.

“I love you, too, and I want you to stop thanking me. I’m excited for this, Jon. So excited.”

He looked at her, as if figuring out if she was telling the truth and she nearly pinched him again for he even thinking for a moment that maybe she wasn’t. A smile slowly began to creep across his face and as she watched it form, Sansa smiled, too.

“I’m really excited, too,” Jon nodded in agreement.

And a part of him felt guilty for that, he knew. He thought of their family and friends back in Wintertown and how upset they had all been at the news that the Snows would be moving away. But then, he thought of how this move just felt so right – for him and for Sansa and hopefully, for their kids. He was excited for what was to come; for what he and Sansa could both do down here.

As the song ended and “All My Loving” began, they stopped swaying and their arms wrapped around the other. Without a word, and with shared smiles, they leaned in for a kiss.

…

“You want it here?” Jon asked once he had moved the empty dresser to the wall between the two windows, with help from Brandon, and then looked back to his two daughters.

Julia took a step back, tilting her head and studying the position with a frown. Eleanor had a piece of notebook paper in her hand that the girls had worked on during the drive from Wintertown yesterday – a map they had drawn of how they wanted their new room to look. She looked down to the drawing now and then looked up to where Jon had put the dresser per their instructions.

“Come on,” Brandon whined. “You don’t even know what feng shui is. It doesn’t matter where it goes.”

“I know what it is,” Eleanor said and then stuck her tongue out at her brother.

“Kids,” Jon said. “I think this is the perfect spot, sweetheart.”

Eleanor looked down to refer to the drawing once more, but Julia – having made up her mind – nodded with a big smile.

“I think so, too, daddy!” She agreed.

“Eleanor?” Jon smiled at Julia and then looked to his other daughter.

With a sigh, Eleanor nodded, lifting her head. “That will work,” she agreed. She then went to Jon and held up the paper so he could see. “But I wanted each of our beds to go in front of the windows with the dresser in between them,” she said, pointing to what she had drawn.

Jon took the paper and studied it closely as he would any set of blueprints handed to him. “We can put one bed in front of the window, if that’s what you want, but it will have to be closer to the wall. If we put the other bed in front of this other window here, you won’t be able to open your closet door.”

Eleanor looked to where he pointed – both on the paper and in the room. She sighed once she saw it for herself and understood. “I made the room bigger on the paper than it actually is,” she admitted.

“Jon!” Sansa called out as Jon smiled at Eleanor and kissed her on the head, handing her back the paper.

“What’s up?” Jon asked as Sansa entered the bedroom with Martha at her side and George following behind, doing his best to give Max a piggyback ride, but giving up and setting him down on his feet. Jon took a step back to make sure the dresser was even against the wall between the two windows.

“What do you think, mama?” Julia asked, still smiling widely.

Sansa took a moment to look around the girls’ bedroom, slowly coming together. Sunlight poured into the room, shining on the freshly painted three white walls and the one faint pink wall both girls had agreed on and the hardwood floor that wasn’t covered by the new gray area rug they bought.

“I think it looks perfect.”

Now Eleanor smiled happily as well.

“So, I promised George I would make cherry coke Jell-O so he could take it over to Molly this afternoon,” Sansa told Jon.

Brandon, Julia and Eleanor all widened their eyes at that. They all loved cherry coke Jell-O. Of all the desserts their mom made, it was definitely one of the top five, in the Snow children’s opinions.

“But of course, we have no cherry Jell-O or coke,” she continued. “And the cable guy still hasn’t gotten here so I can’t leave the house to go to the store.”

“So, I need to go to the store,” Jon guessed.

“No, dad!” George exclaimed. “There’s a mini-mart right down the street across from the school. I told mom I could go there myself!”

Jon visibly paused at that – just as Sansa had done when George suggested it to her.

“I was thinking…” Sansa paused to exhale, as if preparing herself to give voice to her decision. “I need your help moving some furniture so… Brandon, if you think you can handle it, would you mind taking your brothers and sisters to the mini-mart? It’s just two blocks away. And Martha will come with you, too.”

The four younger ones instantly looked to their oldest brother.

Brandon looked to his mom and then dad before back to his mom, not even trying to hide his surprise. He was fourteen and their neighborhood in Wintertown had always been pretty safe, but even then, Sansa had always hesitated a little when Brandon had even wanted to walk just four houses down to Grandpa Arthur and Grandma Lyanna’s house.

Now, she was going to let him take his siblings two blocks in a completely new place?

Sansa took a deep breath and then with a smile, she went to Brandon and put an arm around his shoulders. “I’m going to try to relax just a little bit more down here. _Try_ to,” she emphasized and Brandon began to smile. “But Martha is coming with you because she’ll bite first if anything happens to any of you.”

Brandon looked to Jon, who was smiling now at Sansa. “Cherry Jell-O and coke. Anything else?” He asked both of his parents.

“I have a list,” Sansa said. “Just a few things,” she then quickly added. “Nothing the five of you can’t handle and carry back on your own. And you four are going to listen to your brother and behave for him, right?”

“Right!” George, Eleanor, Julia and Max all immediately agreed, shouting their answer.

“And what do you do if a van pulls up and offers you kids candy or puppies?” Jon asked.

“What kind of candy?” George asked.

“What kind of puppies?” Eleanor asked at the same time.

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU! Adventures in the mini-mart in the next chapter and Sansa has a run-in with some Neck wildlife.


	4. Chapter 4

…

“Julia, stop!” Brandon couldn’t help, but snap. “You don’t have to pick up every snake you see.”

Julia frowned at her brother. She knew Brandon was worried about this job mommy and daddy had given him, but he didn’t have to order her around like that.

“What if it’s poisonous?” Eleanor asked and she wasn’t frowning like Brandon, but she didn’t seem to approve of Julia picking up the snakes either.

“It’s not. See?” She held it up closer to Eleanor’s face, who cringed and quickly dodged away from her. Julia held it up to Brandon next. “It’s not poisonous. No marks – stripes or dots – or easy to see color patterns. Just your average green snake,” she recited from memorization.

“Well, put it down,” Brandon sighed.

Julia decided to listen and crouching down, she set the small green snake down, watching as it immediately slithered into the grass at the side of the road. “Daddy printed things about snakes in the Neck for me from Google,” she then told Brandon what he already knew. “I’m going to learn everything about snakes! And I’m going to ask mommy and daddy for one for Christmas.”

Brandon smiled a little at that and Julia was happy to see it; his smile making her smile.

“Good luck with that. You’ll need it,” he said as his eyes roamed over his other siblings.

He had been able to distract George – “I bet you can’t kick this rock the whole way to the mini-mart” – and George was in front of them all now, doing just that, kicking and then jogging after the rock to kick it again, over and over again. Eleanor walked after him with Martha trotting at her side, panting. The poor dog seemed to be doing nothing except pant since they got here yesterday. Julia was at Brandon’s side, still talking about all of the different markings different snakes in the Neck had and Max…

“Max!” Brandon exclaimed sharply.

The boy jumped at his name and looked up from where he was in the middle of the street, hopping from white line to white line.

“What are you doing? Get out of the middle of the street. You know that you shouldn’t be doing that.” Brandon went to get him and grabbing his hand, he tugged him back to walk on the sidewalk. “Mom and dad would kill me if you got hit by a car.”

Max tried to pull his hand from Brandon’s, frowning as Brandon just held on tighter. “There’s no cars.”

“That you can see. What if one is speeding and doesn’t have time to stop and you go flying?” Brandon asked.

“Do you know there’s over 1800 hit-and-run accidents a day?” Julia stated.

Eleanor looked at her with a slight frown. “That doesn’t sound right.”

Julia shrugged. “I googled it.”

“Sounds like you’re googling too much,” Brandon said and Julia smiled widely at that. “Max, stop!” He frowned as Max was still trying to pull his hand from his that Brandon gripped. Brandon sighed. “Do you want a piggy back ride instead?” He then offered.

_Keep them happy_ , he thought to himself.

This was a big responsibility his parents had given him. BIG. And he was not going to mess this up in any way, shape or form. Not only was mom letting him go somewhere without supervision – somewhere completely new in a completely new place – she and dad were letting him watch over his siblings. There was no way he was going to screw this up.

Max loved getting piggy-back rides and at the offer now from his oldest brother, his eyes gleamed. Brandon finally let go of his hand so he could crouch down and Max scrambled up onto his back.

“Made it!” George grinned once they all reached the parking lot of the mini mart. He spun around to look at Brandon. “Told you I could kick it all the way here.”

Brandon smiled. “Good job.” Keeping Max on his back, he managed to pull the piece of paper mom had given to him before they all left the house. “Eleanor, can you be in charge of that?” Mom and dad always put Eleanor in charge of their lists in stores.

“Of course,” Eleanor smiled happily.

“You wait out here, Martha,” Brandon said and the dog promptly sat down on the ground, next to the row of newspaper vending machines running along the front wall of the mini-mart.

The door alarm dinged when she and George walked into the store first followed by the others. There was no one else in there except an older man – tall and lean with white buzzed hair and a thick pair of black glasses – standing behind the counter and register. He looked at the five new arrivals with a frown. He clearly wasn’t a fan of kids – kids always knew who didn’t like them – and Brandon had to wonder why this man would own a mini-mart across from an elementary school if he didn’t like kids. Julia moved to Brandon’s side as she always did when she saw someone new.

“Hello,” Eleanor smiled warmly at the man and stepped to the counter. “I’m Eleanor and these are my brothers and sister. Our family has just moved to Greywater.” She held out her hand and the man blinked at her from behind his glasses.

Finally, he reached his hand out and shook hers. “Warrick.”

“It’s very nice to meet you, Warrick. I like your name,” Eleanor said, still smiling.

Warrick looked at her for another moment as if he had never talked with anyone quite like her before. It almost looked like he was about to smile. “I like your name as well, Eleanor.”

Her smile widened. “I’m named after _Eleanor Rigby_ ,” she said with pride as she always did when she explained her name to someone new. Warrick smiled at that. “I was hoping you could help. Our mom sent us here for some food. Because we just moved to town.” She stepped to the counter, holding out the list.

Warrick took it and as he looked it over, Eleanor looked back to Brandon, who gave her a nod. She smiled. Eleanor was just like their mom – polite and always a lady. Adults absolutely loved Eleanor.

“We should have everything here that your mom needs,” Warrick told Eleanor, handing her back the paper. He came from around the counter and produced a shopping basket with wheels and a black handle so it could be pulled. “You take this and you kids let me know if you need any help.”

George took the basket handle from Warrick and Eleanor beamed up at the man.

“Thank you so much, Warrick,” she said.

Again, Warrick smiled down at her. “Enough kids don’t say thank you anymore. You are very welcome, Eleanor. And welcome to Greywater.”

Brandon kept Max on his back – the last thing he needed was Max grabbing everything from the shelves – and he also kept an eye on Julia, who liked to ask for anything in a store if it had the word mint on it. He watched over all of his siblings carefully.

This was a test given to him by his parents and he wasn’t going to fail.

“George!” Brandon exclaimed just as the display of hamburger buns fell to the ground and George was holding two packs he had pulled from the middle of the stack.

“Hamburger buns are on the list!”

…

Sansa sighed heavily, wiping her forehead with her arm. They had only been down here for twenty-four hours; not nearly enough time to get used to this humidity, but still, she had hoped she would be able to adjust quickly. Was there any adjusting to this though?

Yes, Sansa, she told herself. She would adjust. The whole family would adjust because this was their home now. By this time next year, they would go back to Wintertown for a visit and they would all be freezing because they weren’t used to the cold anymore.

She took a step back to look at the arrangement of the living room furniture. Poor Jon. She had asked him to move that couch at least five different times, but she just wanted everything to be absolutely perfect. She also wanted this house to be different than their house up North. She knew it would sound ridiculous if she was ever asked to explain it out loud, but she felt this house was hers and Jon’s without their parents.

Not that Lyanna and Catelyn had ever told Jon and Sansa what to do in their house – where to put furniture or what color to paint the living room when they wanted to repaint. They had kept their opinions to themselves, but the thing was, Jon and Sansa _knew_ that they had their opinions.

This house in Greywater, it was something completely fresh and new and Sansa felt that they could do absolutely anything that they wanted.

“Sansa, you’re killing me,” Jon said from their armchair he had dropped down into.

“Oh, stop. When I’m killing you, you’ll know it.” Sansa sighed then and took another step back. “I think I like where everything is. What do you think? Do you like where everything is?”

“’s fine,” Jon grunted, his eyes closed.

Sansa gave him a look which she knew he could feel whether he was looking or not before giving the living room one more look over. “Yes, I like where everything is.” She gave a nod to confirm it. “Alright, get up. It’s time to go see about our room.”

“No.”

“Jon.”

“Sansa.”

“The sooner we get these rooms together, the sooner we can start unpacking and then we’ll be settled.”

Jon grunted… something, but remained in the chair, his eyes still closed. Sansa rolled her eyes, but smiled as she moved towards the front windows, looking out. It was getting a little grey in the sky, but it wasn’t snow they had to worry about. It would always be rain.

“Do you think the kids are alright?” She asked, trying to look out the window and up the street, but the stupid glass kept getting in the way.

“They’re fine,” Jon said. “It’s two blocks, Sansa.”

“In a completely new neighborhood. We could have moved to a neighborhood with a kidnapping ring. You don’t know. And Martha can only bite so many people. What if she’s biting one while another snatches up one of the kids?”

“They’d probably grab Max.”

“Jon!”

“I’m just saying. Brandon is too fast, George and Eleanor know how to punch and Julia would bite.”

“This is a terrible conversation to be having.”

“You’re the one talking about wild scenarios.”

“Kids are kidnapped every day.”

“Not a group of five kids with a dog who would kill to keep them safe.”

Sansa sighed heavily. She stepped away from the window and turned back around to look over the kitchen, eating area and living room. Slowly, it _was_ coming together. She knew they wouldn’t get the whole house together in a day, but she felt better that at least these rooms were somewhat good to go.

She looked to her husband. “Alright, alright. We’ve done enough for the morning.”

“Thank Gods.” Jon’s eyes were instantly open and he pulled himself from the chair. “So with the kids gone, we can make out for a little bit?” He gave her a grin and then a wink, but Jon couldn’t wink. It was really just him blinking his eyes and no matter how many times Sansa saw it, it was still so ridiculous, she laughed.

“Or I call my mom and you try to call the cable company to see if they’re any closer?” Sansa smiled.

“Yes, being kept on hold while listening to that hold music is much better than kissing my wife.”

“Kissing with us usually leads us to somewhere else, especially without the kids around, and I’m not having another baby, Jon.”

“Who ever said anything about another baby? You’ve been on the pill since Max.” Jon paused, looking at her and even from where she stood on one side of the room with him on the other, he looked closely. “Have you been thinking about having another baby?”

Sansa let out a laugh. “That would be ridiculous. We just moved here, our entire life is in upheaval, our oldest is fourteen, our youngest is five already and we have no business even talking about another baby.”

Jon kept looking at her as he crossed the room and closed the space between them. “I never even thought of having a sixth kid, but if that’s something you do think about, we can talk about it, Sansa.”

“I know,” she smiled. “But I’m serious. I really don’t want a baby. I think…” she took a deep breath and Jon rubbed his hands up and down her arms, waiting patiently for her to continue. “Honestly, I think I’m just worried of how I’m going to spend my days and that just popped into my head. The kids will be in school, Max will have morning kindergarten so I’ll have him again in the afternoons, and I know I’ll have my hands full, getting us all settled, but I just don’t want to be bored or lonely or… _bored_.”

“Perfect reason to have a baby,” Jon nodded solemnly and then smiled as that got a laugh out of her. “Ever since you came back home all of those years ago, pregnant with Brandon, and then raising a newborn and going to work every day at the library, every single day since then, you’ve worked. You have worked your ass off and now, you don’t have to. You can do anything you want, Sansa.”

Sansa exhaled a deep breath and nodded.

“Sketching, designing, gardening, baking. _Whatever_ you want, Sansa.”

“Whatever I want,” Sansa repeated; as if she needed to repeat it to help herself believe it. It did sound slightly unbelievable.

Jon smiled and leaned in, giving her a soft kiss.

When Sansa opened her eyes, she was looking right into her husband’s and they both smiled. But then, she saw something from the corner of her eye; something that she knew definitely shouldn’t be there.

“Jon!” She shrieked. “Jon, snake!”

They had left the back patio doors open in hopes of freshening up the rooms. The air conditioner was on, but the house had been closed up for so long, they needed fresh air, too. And they had learned that there were so many things in the swamp that ate bugs and mosquitoes, it actually kept insects to a minimum. There were some bugs, yes, but not as many as Sansa and Jon had been anticipating and expecting.

But they would never leave these back doors open if these snakes in the Neck would just slither inside like they lived here and helped with the mortgage.

“Jon!” Sansa began pushing him towards the snake before she climbed up onto the kitchen island counter.

“Alright. Let me just take a second to figure out how-”

“Jon! It’s not waiting a second!”

“Alright,” Jon said, almost laughing as he grabbed the Swiffer leaning against the counter and began pushing the snake out the doors again. “How the Seven Hells did it get up here? I didn’t know snakes could climb stairs. I’m going to have to ask Julia about this when the kids get home.”

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

…

“Brandon, could you take that out to your dad? He’s on the back deck.” Sansa nodded towards the cup of coffee and a plate with two slices of toast, smeared in strawberry jam. “Thank you, sweetling,” she smiled as Brandon picked both things up and she returned her attention to the eggs she was scrambling on the stove.

The glass patio doors were open and turning around, Brandon pushed the newly installed screen door open with his back. Jon was sitting back in one of the wooden deck chairs, smoking a cigarette, but as soon as he heard someone step outside, he sat straight up and hung the cigarette down at his side. Brandon gave him a smile and Jon returned it with his own.

“I brought breakfast,” Brandon said, setting the plate and cup down on the small table between the chairs.

“Awesome,” Jon said, still with a smile, grabbing the ashtray and stubbing the cigarette out. “Where’s yours?” He asked when he noted that Brandon only brought out enough for him.

“I didn’t know if you wanted to eat alone.”

“Go get your breakfast and eat with me,” Jon said to him and with a grin, Brandon turned and went back into the house, the screen door slapping shut behind him.

Max was up now as well and was sitting on a stool at the island in the kitchen. There was a plate in front of him with a small helping of scrambled eggs, which he was currently frowning down at.

“Max, you need to eat breakfast,” Sansa said with her own small frown.

“I want fried,” the boy said, pushing the plate away.

“Well, I’m the one cooking breakfast and I felt like cooking scrambled so until you cook breakfast, you will eat what I feel like cooking,” Sansa informed him.

Brandon took a plate from the stack Sansa had put out on the counter and helped himself to the scrambled eggs from the pan and a few strips of bacon so he could share with dad.

“Dad’s smoking,” Brandon then told his mom in a quiet voice.

Sansa nodded as she swallowed the sip of coffee she had taken. “I know. He’s nervous about today,” she told him in a matching quiet tone.

All of the Snow children knew that their dad smoked the occasional cigarette even if he _never_ smoked in front of him. Brandon, George and Eleanor were the only ones to know _why_ he ever smoked though and now seeing his slight frown, Sansa leaned in and kissed his head, giving him a small smile.

“He’s alright, I promise. Just nervous,” Sansa said and Brandon nodded.

“I’m going to go eat breakfast with him,” Brandon told her. “Just the two of us,” he then felt like he needed to add for some unknown reason.

“Well, you better hurry back out there unless you want to witness the war over scrambled eggs that’s about to break out between your brother and I.” Brandon grinned at that and Sansa smiled, too, before looking back to Max. “Maxwell Hoster Snow,” she began in a stern tone.

Brandon high-tailed it out of the kitchen, back through the screen door. Anytime his mom used all of their names, it was never good, but Grandma Catelyn said that every family had at least one picky eater and Max was definitely theirs. Daily battles over food were a common occurrence.

“I’ve brought bacon,” Brandon said as Jon was taking a gulp of coffee.

“Good boy,” Jon grinned and Brandon did, too, as he got settled in the other deck chair.

Jon crunched his toast as Brandon dug into his eggs, both quiet for a passing minute as they ate.

“I don’t think you should be nervous today,” Brandon then said.

“No?” Jon took a strip of bacon for himself.

“The Baratheon Brothers moved you here for a reason. They think you can do this so you will.”

Jon smiled a little before taking another strip of bacon. “You make it sound easy.”

Brandon paused and then shrugged. “Why can’t it be? You’re one of the best contractors in the North and the Neck is still the North.”

Jon paused and took another sip of coffee, thinking on that. Through the screen door, they could hear that the other kids were awake now, all getting their breakfasts – and Max still not eating his.

“Alright. Fine,” Sansa said. “You don’t want to eat breakfast? I’m making lemon crème pie for dessert tonight to celebrate your daddy’s first day of work, but I guess you don’t want any of that.”

They could all hear Max gasp. “Mama, no.”

“If you don’t eat your eggs now, you obviously don’t want to eat dessert later tonight,” Sansa told him.

There was no answer to that, but Brandon and Jon both could practically hear Max shoveling eggs in his mouth. Brandon finished up his own eggs and watched as his dad finished his own toast and leaned back in his chair, bringing his coffee cup with him. Inside, he heard Sansa’s cell phone begin to ring and she answered it, snapping her fingers so the kids would keep quiet for a moment.

“How are you?” Jon then asked.

Brandon shrugged. “I’m okay, I think. Did mom tell you what we’re doing today?”

“She did,” Jon nodded. “And you don’t be nervous either. You’re going to do great.”

Brandon shrugged again, turning his head away to look over the backyard, looking away like he sometimes did when he didn’t necessarily want to talk about something, but he knew there wasn’t getting out of it.

“I don’t know how it will be, down here,” Brandon then said, still looking away, not knowing if he could look at his dad as he said it.

He thought of his mom’s words – of how dad had done everything for them and this move was their chance to do something for him. Brandon _wanted_ to do this for dad and yeah, moving here sucked the big one – to put it lightly – but there were far worse things to do and places to move than here.

The Baratheon Brothers could have transferred their family to Dorne. Gods, Brandon didn’t even want to imagine what it would be like if they had to move even further south than the Neck.

“We’ll get used to it, Brandon. I promise you.”

Brandon nodded and he slowly turned his head back so he was looking at his dad again. “I know,” he said and he even managed to give a smile.

…

“What do I want you to do?” Sansa asked once she had parked the car and looked back at the four children. Brandon sat in the front passenger seat next to her, unbuckling his seatbelt. “Let me hear it.”

“You want us to be good,” Eleanor answered for all of them.

“That’s right. This is important for your brother and we’re not going to ruin it for him, are we?” Sansa asked.

“No, mama!” Julia exclaimed.

“We won’t ruin it for Brandon,” George chimed in.

“Promise!” Max finished loudly.

Sansa smiled at all of them and then looked to Brandon, who was quiet and looking nervous. “Are you ready?” She asked him, quiet as if she didn’t want the others to overhear.

Brandon looked ahead, seeing the chain link fence and the bleachers ahead. He swallowed and nodded.

“Let’s go do this,” Sansa smiled.

Brandon helped Sansa get all of the kids from the back and he walked at Sansa’s side as she held Max’s hand, the boy walking on her other side. George had his soccer ball, but he wasn’t kicking it yet. He hugged it to his chest as he, Eleanor and Julia walked ahead as if they knew where they were going.

The gates to the football field were open and there was a man waiting for them inside – a middle-aged man with black and grey pepper hair shaved close to his scalp and a little bit of a belly. He wore black gym shorts and a grey tee-shirt with Greywater High School printed on it in white letters. A whistle hung around his neck and sunglasses rested on top of his head.

“Coach Benedict?” Sansa presumed.

The man smiled. “Mrs. Snow?”

Both adults smiled at one another, stepping forward to shake hands.

“It is so nice to meet you. And thank you so much for meeting us,” Sansa said.

She had read on the high school’s website that tryouts for the cross country team had already happened – so those who made it could spend the summer months, training and conditioning. When Sansa found this out, she went right into action, finding and contacting the cross country coach, explaining the situation and asking if it would be possible for her son to try out since they had just moved to town.

“And this must be Brandon,” Coach Benedict smiled. “Nice to meet you.”

“You, too, sir. Thank you for letting me do this.”

“It’s my pleasure, Brandon. Your mom said that you’ve been in training since you were younger.”

“My Uncle,” Brandon nodded. “He was a big cross country star further North and my parents said that that’s where I got my love for running from.”

“Who is your Uncle?” Coach Benedict understandably was curious.

Brandon looked to Sansa before back to the man. “I’d rather run for you first before I tell you. I don’t want to get anything because of who my Uncle is.”

“That’s fair enough,” Coach gave a nod. “Alright. I’m going to clock you as you run a mile for me. Four times around this track is one mile. Can you do that?”

“Yes, sir,” Brandon nodded.

“Alright, let’s go. Do you need to stretch?” He asked as the two walked closer to the track and Sansa made sure to swallow down the “Good luck, honey!” she wanted to yell out after him.

Instead, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment, sending up a quick thought to the Gods, asking them to really help Brandon out today, run that mile as swiftly as he could. Brandon really needed this – the first step towards meeting other kids and being involved in his new school – and Sansa desperately wanted this for him.

With another deep breath, she turned and smiled when she saw all four children were standing there, waiting for her and fulfilling their promise to her. They stood, waiting, trying not to appear inpatient though she could easily see that George, Julia and Max were trying to hide their desires to fidget and squirm.

“Thank you, my loves,” she smiled and all four broke into smiles at that. “See that grassy patch there? You play right there and nowhere else. Eleanor-”

“I’ll make sure,” Eleanor swiftly promised and Sansa couldn’t help, but laugh.

“Go on then.”

And no sooner had Sansa given them permission that all four children ran off to the grass to kick the soccer ball around. Sansa watched them for a moment with a smile before looking back towards the track. Coach Benedict stood at the start line, a stopwatch in his hand, and Brandon was already halfway around the track. Sansa wanted to go closer, but she wasn’t going to watch him and perhaps make Brandon nervous. And for herself, she couldn’t watch. She was just too nervous.

Thankfully, her cell phone began to ring and it was her husband, clearly reading her mind.

He was another she had been so nervous for, she had felt a knot so tight in her stomach, she wondered if she was going to throw up or not. Today, Jon would be going to work, officially beginning on expanding Snow Construction in the Neck. He had tried to hide his own nerves, but smoking had been a dead giveaway. She hadn’t wanted to flutter and fret around him like a mother hen, but Jon smoking _did_ mean something.

“Do you want to call Osha?” She asked before the other kids had woken up and they were on the back deck.

Jon shook his head as he cupped the flame around the cigarette on his bottom lip. Osha was still his sponsor until he started going to meetings in Greywater and could find another one.

“I’m alright, I swear to you,” Jon said. He turned his head away as he exhaled, making sure the wind didn’t care it right back to her. “I’m just… I’m scared as Hell and I just need to calm myself.”

Sansa wished she knew what to say that could help him relax, but she was at a loss. And she _hated_ being at a loss. She stepped to him and put an arm around his waist, resting her chin on his shoulder. “You’re the man who created and built Snow Construction up from nothing and it became such a success, the _Baratheon_ brothers came to the North to woo you. You can do this, Jon.”

Jon smiled a little at that and turning his head, he kissed hers. “Thank you.”

And now, he was calling and she hoped, hoped, _hoped_ that it was because he was having such a good day.

“Hi,” She answered.

Brandon was almost finished with his first lap and Sansa wished she had the stopwatch on her phone running so she had an idea of what his time was so far.

“I feel like a kid on his first day of school. I got to this pre-bid meeting _way_ too early and no one is here yet, so I’m sitting in my truck, trying to act like I completely _meant_ to get here so early.”

“Isn’t it good you’re there early? Early bird and all that,” Sansa commented.

“I just don’t want to be the first one in the room or the last. Middle arrival is ideal. I want to get a feel for the competition in this area, but I don’t want to make it too obvious that I’m getting a feel for them.”

“Gotcha,” Sansa replied as if she understood though she really didn’t. At all. “Max!” She suddenly snapped and the boy jumped at attention, dropping the candy wrapper that he had found on the ground. “I know you must be joking. You know so much better than that. And you won’t eat my scrambled eggs, but you’ll eat candy trash that you find on the ground?” She frowned deeply at him and Max lowered his eyes, guiltily.

Eleanor and Julia were distracted, crawling in the grass, both girls looking for snakes.

“Candy trash,” George laughed, dribbling the soccer ball back and forth between his feet. “Sounds like a really awesome band.”

“This is good,” Jon said in Sansa’s ear. “I can act like I’m on a super important phone call, sitting in my truck.”

“You are on a super important phone call, Jon,” Sansa frowned. “Your son is eating candy trash!”

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to those still reading this one. Sansa is so worried about everyone else, she's forgetting herself. We'll get to that in the next chapter. We'll also see George and Molly together again as well.


	6. Chapter 6

…

“George, would you like Fruit Loops or Fruity Pebbles?” Sansa asked as he sat at the kitchen island, looking at something on the tablet.

“Fruity Pebbles,” George answered without lifting his eyes. “Thanks, mom,” he said, still looking at the tablet as Sansa set the bowl with milk down in front of him.

“What are you looking at?” Sansa asked, coming around to stand next to him. Jon had parental locks on any site they might deem a bad one, but if any of the kids could get around those locks, it would be George. But when she saw what he was actually looking at, she felt someone reach into her chest and squeeze her heart.

_What Kids with Cerebral Palsy Can Do_

Without saying anything, Sansa kissed him on the head and George smiled a little.

“So, what do you think?” She asked, leaning in closer so she could read, too. 

“I’m not sure,” George scrolled down the page. “Her CP seems a little worse than some of these kids, but a lot of these sites keep mentioning music. I think I’ll bring some over to her house today.”

“What music were you thinking?” Sansa asked.

George grinned. “ _The White Album_?”

“Hmmmm,” she thought that over as she went back around the island as Julia came down the stairs to get her a bowl of cereal for breakfast as well. George pulled the stool out for his little sister and she climbed up to plop down next to him as he kept his eyes on his mom. “Well, now, I _always_ think _The White Album_ is a magnificent choice, but there is a possibility that Molly has never heard the Beatles before and I don’t know if that’s the best album to introduce her to them. Obviously, it’s perfection, but it might be better to start her education from the beginning.”

George was still grinning. “I’ll take _1_ over.”

“Excellent choice,” Sansa nodded, placing the bowl of Fruit Loops in front of Julia with a small glass of milk next to it – Julia always eating her cereal dry without adding milk to it.

“Excellent choice,” Julia parroted. “Thank you, mama.”

Sansa smiled at them both as they began eating their breakfasts and she then looked to the clock on the microwave. She picked her cell phone up from the counter where it was charging. She had a new text from her mom – just seeing how things were going – and another from Jon. He had left much earlier that morning, going to the new office space that Stannis had just leased to check it out. He was supposed to have gone yesterday, but it hadn’t been finalized yet.

_I’m going to need your decorating help!_ His text said and Sansa smiled as she then opened the several pictures he sent her of the empty space. White walls and gray carpets. She was already envisioning which green plants she would buy.

“Mama,” Eleanor came down the stairs next. “I screwed it up,” she said with a frown, holding the unplugged curling iron and the hair on one side of her head was _overly_ curled while the other side wasn’t curled at all.

“I’ll fix it,” Sansa promised as she took the iron and plugged it into the nearest outlet.

When Eleanor said she wanted to curl her hair, Sansa had tried to tell her that the humidity here would _not_ agree with it, but Eleanor was just on the cusp of entering that glorious stubborn pre-teen age, and she was determined to do it.

(Jon had complained about his own curly hair no less than ten times since moving here and Julia and Max, sharing their father’s dark curls, were faring no better.)

As Sansa waited for the iron to heat up again and she texted with Jon, Eleanor got her own breakfast – a bowl of Fruity Pebbles, like her brother, and she then went to the refrigerator for the small carton of almond milk.

Eleanor was the only one in the family who drank almond milk and she was always so thankful to her parents for buying it for her. Since the age of eight, she had toyed with the idea of becoming a vegetarian. Some months, she went completely all in and then other months, she wanted chicken nuggets. Jon was preparing himself for when she made the announcement that she wanted to be a vegan. (He wasn’t looking forward to it while Sansa was already on Pinterest, looking for vegan recipe ideas.)

After she pulled herself up onto the third stool at the counter, on the other side of Julia, and began eating her breakfast, Sansa stood at her side and first brushed out the curls on the one side of her head and then began curling her hair in softer curls rather than the tight springs Eleanor had been giving herself.

Hearing steps on the stairs, she looked over her shoulder and smiled as she saw Brandon – wearing his running clothes with his shoes already tied on his feet – coming down with Max on his back.

“I’m going for a run,” Brandon let her know as he let Max slide down from his back to his feet.

“Don’t you want to eat something first?” Sansa frowned.

“Not before I run, mom.”

“Please stick to our neighborhood,” Sansa told him because although she was trying to be a bit more lax, she still didn’t want her children running all over Greywater without her knowing where they were.

Brandon nodded and with a kiss to her cheek, he then turned and headed out the front door.

Sansa finished Eleanor’s hair and after working her fingers through it to make the curls look more natural, she then unplugged the curling iron and looked to Max. “What would you like for breakfast, Max?” She asked.

“Peanut butter,” the boy answered from the floor where he was sitting next to Martha as she was lying down, petting her down her back over and over.

“You’re having it on toast,” she told him, moving towards the loaf of bread she had out on the counter.

Sansa thought to herself that it might be a good morning when Max didn’t raise a fuss.

…

“This is my song, Molly,” Eleanor smiled. “My parents named me Eleanor after this one.”

George pressed play on the tablet that he had brought over with their Beatles songs loaded onto it. When they had rung the doorbell, Molly’s mother opened the door, smiling the instant she saw that it was them. Molly was on the back deck with her nurse, Adelaide, and they were out there still, George playing Beatles songs for Molly once she shook her head that she hadn’t heard any.

Adelaide stayed out with them, but she sat in a chair, reading a magazine. George had decided that Adelaide wasn’t all bad despite having yelled at him that first day. He realized that she was just protective of Molly and she hadn’t known who he was when he climbed into the backyard.

And George might have only met Molly, but he knew that if some strange person was talking to her, he’d be protective of her, too.

As _“Eleanor Rigby”_ played, George could see that the slight smile on Molly’s face began to fade. He was quick to figure out why. He turned the song off before it could finish and Eleanor opened her mouth to protest, but George spoke before she could.

“It is a sad song,” he agreed and Molly looked at him, giving him the slightest nod. “Do you want to listen to another one?” He then asked.

Again, Molly nodded and then she lifted her hand, pointing it towards him.

He broke into a grin. “Want to hear a George Harrison song?”

Molly nodded and began to smile.

“This was his first song written to appear on one of their albums. It’s awesome, obviously,” George grinned and Molly began to laugh, Eleanor giggling, too. He scrolled for a second before finding the one.

_“Don’t Bother Me”_ began to play and he watched as Molly smiled the entire time. Eleanor took a step back from Molly’s wheelchair and began to do the twist. Molly let out a laugh – as much as a laugh as she could make – and her hand went to the control on the arm of her chair. George took a step back, letting out a laugh, as Molly began turning her chair back and forth as if she was twisting, too, and Eleanor laughed more as she twisted and George joined in.

From the corner of his eye, he could see Adelaide smile even as she kept her head down to her magazine and her foot was tapping along to the song under the patio table.

…

Julia and Max were in the living room, watching an episode of _Top Chef_ on the television – Sansa still wasn’t entirely sure how the two became to love the show so much – as Sansa was in the bedroom that was going to be their office – slash – sewing room.

Martha had laid herself in the open doorway so she could be with Sansa while also keeping an eye on the two littlest Snows. Sansa had finished hooking up the family’s desktop computer and arranging things on the desk as she waited for their internet to make the connection. There were more family pictures unpacked and while she left a picture of the Snow family on the desk, she carried the others over to the window sill, wide and deep enough for the frames to be displayed there.

Was this how it was going to be? Brandon was gone – still out running – George and Eleanor were next door, with Molly, and Julia and Max were doing their own thing and Jon was at work. Sansa was here, unpacking and figuring out where things would be put and she had no one to call and ask them to come over to help.

It was just her now. Yes, she had her family – Jon and the kids and Martha and no one was more important than them – but still… when school started and the kids were all gone as was Jon for the day, it really would be just her and what was she going to do? The house wouldn’t stay packed in boxes forever and once everything was out in its new, rightful place, what was she going to do?

As Jon said, she could do anything. She could get back to designing and sewing. She had had an idea for a children’s line of clothing so long ago – _Yummy by Sansa Snow_ – and it had been just as long since she had thought of it further, but was now the time to? She missed sketching and shopping for fabrics and then sitting down and _creating_ something that one of her children or she or Jon could wear.

Jon was right. Ever since she came back to her parents’ house all of those years ago, broken and pregnant with Brandon, she had spent every day since, working and seeing to a million things. This was the first time in so long where she could…

She could do _anything_. Jon was absolutely right. The only problem was, Sansa didn’t know how to do that. She didn’t know how not to do anything if it wasn’t working or racing from one thing to another.

She sighed – and it must have been a particularly heavy sigh because suddenly Martha was there; as if to check on her. Sansa smiled at the dog and scratched her head and kissed her snout. Martha panted and licked her on the chin.

“I promise,” Sansa said to her. “We’re both going to get used to this.”

Martha licked her chin again and Sansa gave her another kiss.

“Are you kids alright?” Sansa called out as she stood up, going to the door to look into the living room.

It was slightly frightening how entirely engrossed Julia and Max were with the episode.

“Yes,” they both answered back, never turning their heads away.

Sansa went to the desk and as she went to the internet, going to Google, her phone began to ring.

“Hi,” she turned Jon on speaker. “How is it going?”

“Good. I went to this café for lunch – the Blue Brick Café – and I’m bringing you there. You’ll love it. And I’ve been interviewing guys and I think I’ve met a few really good ones.”

“That’s great,” Sansa genuinely smiled.

“And how are you?”

“Right now, I’m googling fabric stores in Greywater that I can check out. It won’t be Mordane’s, but no place is.”

“Do you want to go this evening when I get home?”

“You want to go fabric shopping?”

“I love watching you pick fabrics. And we can get out here, see some of the town, have some family fun…”

Sansa laughed at that. “Family fun at a fabric store.”

“Hey, we’re in a new town, living a new life. Maybe going to the fabric store is the Snow family’s fun now. And this is something we get to do with you, for you. Sounds fun to me.”

Sansa’s hand paused over the mouse at Jon’s words and she exhaled a shaky breath before she could stop herself. She was being silly. She knew. How long was this melancholy going to last?

She knew Jon heard it because he got quiet on the other end.

“I’m going to try and get home early,” he then said.

Sansa shook her head before she spoke. “No, you won’t. I’m fine. I promise I’m fine. It’s just a lot and I just love you so much.”

“I love you, too, and I have just a few more interviews this afternoon. I’ll be home as soon as I’m done. So get some fabric stores together and we’ll head off on our first Greywater Snow family adventure.”

Sansa felt another laugh bubbling, she moving the mouse again, looking over the search returns. “It sounds like a comedy of errors waiting to happen.”

“Don’t get me wrong. It’s going to be a disaster.”

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to those sticking with this one and for reading and commenting!


	7. Chapter 7

…

“You are so beautiful, it’s ridiculous,” he heard his dad’s voice say.

His mama laughed. “Stop.”

“I mean it.”

“So do I.”

There was more laughing and kissing sounds, but the door wasn’t closed all the way – it still open a crack – so Max thought to take that as the signal that it was alright to come into the room. He pushed the door open and came into their bedroom. Jon and Sansa were still in bed, still in their pajamas, and kissing. However, when they heard the door open, Jon immediately lifted his head and both turned to see who it was.

“Good morning, Max,” Sansa smiled, sitting up a little.

“Morning, mama. Daddy, did you look outside?” Max asked.

Jon frowned a little. “What’s going on outside?”

Max pointed to their window. “The swamp’s coming.”

Jon and Sansa looked at him and then looked to one another. Without a word, they both flung the covers off at the same time and hurried to the window, pushing the blinds apart to see what Max was talking about. Max came and pushed himself between them so he could stand in front and look out, too.

The master bedroom overlooked the front yard and driveway and true to Max’s word, they could see water. Not much – yet. But it was beginning to seep and flood the grass and begin to inch across the sidewalks and street. Jon knew it was going to happen – obviously he knew – but seeing it was something completely different. He had never seen anything like it before.

“Did you put the cars up?” Sansa asked him.

“I’ll go do that right now.”

“And we should let Martha out while she can still go out,” she added and Jon nodded.

“Mama, can I go swimming when there’s more water?” Max looked up to her.

“We can’t swim in swamp water,” Sansa said with a small smile. “It’s not very clean and there’s all sorts of things that live in swamp water. Things we can’t even see.” Max frowned, not pleased with the answer, and she bent over, kissing his head. “Are your brothers and sisters awake? I think it’s time for some breakfast.”

“Nutella!” Max’s eyes gleamed.

“You’re having it on toast,” she replied. She then looked to Jon. “Today should be an interesting day.”

That made Jon smile and Sansa smiled, too. “Glad we went grocery shopping yesterday.”

Almost all of the grocery stores and other stores in Greywater were located on higher ground and looking outside, Jon now understood why.

“How long does the water stay?” Max asked as Jon bent down and hefted him up into his arms.

“Guys at the office have told me that the swamp does what it wants to do,” Jon answered as he carried Max, following Sansa from the bedroom.

“Ew, Brandon!” They heard Eleanor shriek from below followed by both of her brothers laughing.

“Sometimes, this water will come in and be gone by tomorrow. Sometimes, it can be a couple of weeks.”

“I hope it’s a whole month!” Max declared excitedly.

Sansa smiled. “Let’s get through our first flooding before hoping for more,” she suggested.

Downstairs, the back patio doors were open and through the screens, Jon and Sansa could see their four other children, on the deck steps, still in their pajamas, but all wearing their rubber rain boots. Martha was out there, too, they hearing the dog barking at something.

“Mama!” Julia exclaimed when Sansa and Jon, still holding Max, stepped outside. “Look!” She pointed and Jon and Sansa looked to their backyard.

Their backyard sloped down and already, the bottom of their yard was submerged in the swamp water.

“We’re having races,” George told them with a grin. “Julia and Brandon verses me and Eleanor.”

“Where are you racing?” Jon asked, bending down and setting Max down.

“To the water and back to the bottom step. You want to race?” Brandon asked.

“Jon, you’re not wearing shoes,” Sansa reminded him.

Jon looked down to his bare feet and then to the slowly flooding yard. He then looked to all five kids, who were looking at him, waiting to hear what he was going to do. He then looked back to his wife.

“I kind of want to run in my bare feet,” Jon smiled with a shrug.

Sansa looked at him for a moment before rolling her eyes, smiling. She looked to the kids. “Don’t even think about it,” she then told them before even one could open their mouth to say the same thing.

“I’ll run with George and Eleanor,” Jon then said.

“Yay!” Eleanor exclaimed.

“Do you want to be on our team, Max?” Brandon asked the littlest one.

“Max needs to put on his rain boots first,” Sansa told them all.

And as Max hurried inside to get his boots from the hall closet to do just that, sitting on the floor to tug them on – without mama’s help, he made sure she knew – Sansa grabbed her phone.

She stood on the steps as everyone got in position. Julia and Max would be racing first. Martha barked with excitement, ready to run to the water as well. In just a few minutes, an even larger amount had seeped into their backyard and Sansa guessed that it was about ankle deep now.

“Hi, Molly!” George suddenly shouted and the Snow family all turned their heads to see Molly watching them from her own top deck. The whole family waved at her and Molly lifted her hand in her own wave. “Mom, can I go see Molly later?” He looked back to Sansa.

Sansa nodded. “If Mrs. Wheaton won’t mind. But first, you have a race and breakfast.”

_And if you can get over there without having to swim_ , she added to herself. Jon had talked about getting a motorboat, but he hadn’t bought one yet. She hoped this water didn’t stick around long this time; not until they had a boat.

George grinned at that.

“Are we ready?” Jon asked them.

“Yes!” The kids all exclaimed.

“You have to run fast because daddy still has to put the cars up in the garage and I’ll fix us a big breakfast,” Sansa promised as she opened up the video on her phone.

“Alright,” Jon began and Sansa hit the record button. “1! 2! … 3!”

Julia and Max took off, the others cheering after them, and Martha ran at their side, so happy and excited, she was practically bouncing. They came to the edge of the flooding waters with their boots and turned. Julia slipped, but kept herself up as she ran for Eleanor. Max beat her just by a hair and had slapped Jon’s hand so he could take off running next, Eleanor racing after him. The grass was slick enough where she decided that sliding might be better.

“Go, Eleanor!” Sansa cheered for her as the girl dropped to her knees and slid across the grass, stopping a few inches away from the water.

Jon was laughing and helped her back to her feet and both began running back at the same time.

It came down to Brandon and George and George knew there was no way he could beat him. There might be _one_ thing he could do.

“George, no!” Jon and Sansa both yelled out as George ran and then dropped down his front – sliding down the yard at a high speed…

Right into the swamp water.

…

After the race, Sansa ordered George to go straight up to the bathroom and take a shower and for Eleanor to change out of her wet pajamas as Jon went into the garage, the other kids coming with him so they could watch the platform of their garage lift upwards.

Sansa decided that it was the perfect morning for blueberry muffins and she had finished mixing and putting them in muffin pans when the oven went off, reaching the desired temperature, and George came downstairs again, wearing fresh clothes and rubbing a towel over his red hair.

“Whoa,” he noted as he looked out the backdoor. The backyard was completely underwater now. “This is so crazy,” he then said, more to himself, with a shake of his head.

“We’ll get used to it,” Sansa told him with a smile.

“Yeah, we will. This is home,” he grinned back.

“Home,” Sansa echoed, still smiling.

She slid the muffin pans into the oven as the others came back into the kitchen and as the kids all went to go watch something on television, Max stayed and frowned at Sansa.

“I wanted Nutella,” he pouted.

“Well, I’m the one cooking breakfast and I felt like baking blueberry muffins so until you cook breakfast, you will eat what I feel like cooking,” Sansa informed him, giving him a look that dared him to argue with her.

He didn’t. He did give a huff though before turning and joining his brothers and sisters in the living/family room. Jon snickered from the coffee pot, pouring himself a cup, as Sansa rolled her eyes at their youngest.

“Why is your phone dinging so much?” Jon asked.

“I sent a video of the race to the family,” Sansa said, rinsing out her mixing bowl at the sink to put in the dishwasher, and Jon looked to her phone on the counter.

Sure enough, there were now twelve unread messages from both of their mothers, Robb, Margaery and Arya. And just as he looked, Arthur, and then Lyanna again, sent one.

Jon took a sip of his coffee and watched Sansa as she closed the dishwasher door and began wiping down the counters. She blew a heavy breath out, trying to blow a strand of hair hanging in her face.

“I love you,” he spoke the only thought on his mind at that precise second. He didn’t think he could love her more. He could try, but if he could, he thought his body would actually burst.

Sansa lifted her head and looked at him. A smile began to slowly spread across her lips and her cheeks were pink; Jon smiling at the sight of it.

“I love you, too,” she told him.

With his smile growing, Jon slid his mug onto the counter and came to her, wrapping her up in his arms and pulling her body against his. Sansa’s smile grew, too.

“Marry me?” He asked.

His smile widened into a grin as Sansa laughed, slipping her arms around his shoulders.

She nodded, her eyes twinkling as she looked into his. “Yes.”

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU! I'm not sure if I will continue this universe. I never expected it to go on this long and it might be the time to pack it in (but, of course, as soon as I say that, I'll have another idea). Thank you so much to everyone who has stuck with me through this entire, _long_ journey.


End file.
